What is in the moment planning?

In the Moment Planning focuses on prioritising quality teaching interactions between practitioners and children that really ‘make a difference’ through: modelling language, showing, explaining, demonstrating, exploring ideas, encouraging, questioning, recalling, providing a narrative, facilitating, setting challenges, providing equipment, adapting the environment and establishing expectations (Ofsted definition of Teaching).

It removes the concentration on time consuming forward planning and excessive (and often un-meaningful) observation write ups that take the practitioner away from time with the children, allowing more time for quality relationships to develop and inspiring teaching moments to take place.

As it says on the tin, ‘In the Moment Planning’ is all about being in that moment. Children learn best when they choose their own play, become fully engaged in their learning style and show Level 5 Involvement (where they are happy, engaged, motivated, confident, curious, calm, independent, resilient, creative, communicating, risk taking, interacting).

It is the role of the skilled practitioner to observe their play, assess whether their teaching input could make a difference and plan their next step teaching, which will be delivered in that moment. This process ensures that current interests and sparks of understanding can be captured and utilized immediately, rather than planning a next step for the future when the spark may have passed or been forgotten.

These ‘teaching interactions’ occur between practitioner and child, 100s if not 1000s of times a day, yet will only be recorded during the child’s termly ‘Focus Week’ to ensure time is being prioritised on actual teaching rather than paperwork. Working in ‘Focus weeks’ also ensures that the learning and development of each and every child is prioritised and that parents are encouraged to work in partnership with practitioners on a regular basis.

In the lead up to the child’s focus week, parents will be invited to share their knowledge of interests, skills and any questions in their child’s development. Such information will be used alongside the practitioner’s own knowledge as a baseline for the child’s holistic development and their unique current interests can be used to develop invitations to play that will enable the child to feel valued, respected and able to take the lead, therefore promoting opportunities for high quality teachable moments to take place.

Following the child’s focus week, their EYFS Tracker will be updated and shared via Tapestry, alongside the recorded teaching interactions with their parent/carers.

These will then be discussed between parent/practitioners, where any queries can be addressed, support shared and achievements celebrated!

Tapestry – an innovative, safe, online, environmentally friendly, instant 2-way communication between parent/carer and practitioners. 

Our Online Journals allow daily feedback, photos, videos, 'wow moments', termly Focus Child observations and development trackers to be shared with each child’s parents/carers through a secure, individual online login system. In addition, we use this platform to share any nursery updates and news with all our families. Each time your child’s Key Person adds something to their journal, you will receive an instant/daily email of notification and by logging in to your child’s secure profile, you will be able to view all the fun your child has been having at nursery and links to how it is supporting their learning and development.

With your secure login details, Tapestry can be accessed from any laptop and desktop computer and on any tablet or smartphone, by downloading the Tapestry App, making your child’s nursery life instantly accessible even when at work or at home. 

The beauty of Tapestry (and what our practitioners love about it!) is the parent/carer interaction side of it. Parents are able ‘like’ and ‘comment’ on any of their child’s nursery observations, giving confirmation of viewing it and often providing lots of insights from home! Furthermore, parents/carers can easily upload their own photos/videos of new skills, vocabulary, interesting days out, exciting adventures, birthday celebrations, holidays and any other significant moments in their child’s lives to share with nursery.

These parent/carer uploads are fantastic contributions to your child’s journal and also brilliant input for their Key Person, helping them create a more holistic view of your child’s abilities, skills and current interests and using this information they can plan tailored, provocations/invitations to play set ups at nursery to support them in their next steps in development.

[Please note, in order to uphold our Safeguarding and Confidentiality policies, upon registration for Tapestry you will be asked to sign a contract stating that any photos/videos are to be used for personal use only and must not be shared on any social networking sites]

At Tiny Tinkers Nursery we work closely with the EYFS to follow each child's learning and development. On starting, each child will be observed over a few weeks and a Baseline created on their progress Tracker for each of the 7 areas of learning. Their 'Development Matters' folder and Tracker will then be updated and shared with parents/carers via Tapestry after each of their child's Focus Weeks (In the Moment Planning).

 

Please click here to download a Parents Guide to the Early Years Foundation Framework.

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